he moved her chemically

"Her heart sank into her shoes as she realized at last how much she wanted him. No matter what his past was, no matter what he had done. Which was not to say that she would ever let him know, but only that he moved her chemically more than anyone she had ever met, that all other men seemed pale beside him." 

- F. Scott Fitzgerald 

snapshot: Roman Imperial Rosso AnticoTorso, circa 1st century A.D.

we should meet

"We should meet in another life,

we should meet in air,

me and you."

- Sylvia Plath

desire in pure state

An extract from the diary Maria wrote... :

"Profound desire, true desire is the desire to be close to someone. From that point onwards, things change, the man and the woman come into play, but what happens before - the attraction that brought them together - is impossible to explain. It is untouched desire in its purest state.

When desire is still in this pure state, the man and the woman fall in love with life, they live each moment reverently, consciously, always ready to celebrate the next blessing.

When people feel like this, they are not in a hurry, they do not precipitate events with unthinking actions. They know that the inevitable will happen, that what is real always finds a way of revealing itself. When the moment comes, they do not hesitate, they do not miss an opportunity, they do not let slip a single magic moment, because they respect the importance of each second."

- PAULO COELHO

snapshot selfie

mujer volcan

- 2013 mixed media -

Volcano Woman,

igniting the world.

Volcano Mother,

birthing new beginnings.

Volcano Goddess,

purifying the soul.

eyes the color of a storm

so brave - so strong, the child is born
with eyes the color of a storm

earth mother bestows him volcanic fire
making him a man – a king admired

his queen - his one desire
his daughter - his best attire

for a king and the women in his life

mixed media collage on paper, except from my 2007 journals 

a king and a woman

“…but you must believe me when I tell you that I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as King as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love…”

– Edward VIII, Duke of Windsor (1894-1972)

mixed media on paper

dreaming in Italian

“It would be impossible to love anyone else.”
– Sophia Loren (b. 1934)

last night I dreamed in Italian...it was a wonderful adventure of a dream

mixed media on paper 

without the words

"Hope is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me."

- Emily Dickinson

detail of mixed media collage on paper 

ki-ki-ri-ki

the lunar year of the rooster begins...

blessings to all...

nine months new moon

she pulls herself up to stand 

she is fearless

she is loud

she is sweet and oh so curious 

she is determined 

she is my daughter 

nine months old on this new moon

life outside the garden

"In the cage is the lion. She paces with her memories. Her body is a record of her past. As she moves back and forth, one may see it all: the lean frame, the muscular legs, the paw enclosing sharp claws, the astonishing speed of her response. She was born in this garden. She has never in her life stretched those legs. Never darted farther than twenty yards at a time. Only once did she use her claws. Only once did she feel them sink into flesh. And it was her keeper's flesh. Her keeper whom she loves, who feeds her, who would never dream of harming her, who protects her. Who in his mercy forgave her mad attack, saying it was her nature, to be cruel at a whim, to try to kill what she loves...she knows no life outside the garden. She has no notion of anger of what she could have been, or might be. No idea of rebellion. It is only her body that knows of these things, moving her, daily, hourly, back and forth, before the bars of her cage."

- Susan Griffin

divine feminine

"The more separated we become from the Earth, the more hostile we become to the feminine.

We disown our passion, our creativity, and our sexuality.

Eventually the Earth itself becomes a baneful place.

I remember being told by a medicine woman in the Amazon:

Do you know why they are really cutting down the rain forest? Because it is wet and dark and tangled and feminine."

- Alberto Villoldo 

one of my pieces from a few years ago, in a private collection 

dazzling spirit

"Creativity is a shapechanger. One moment it takes this form, the next that. It is like a dazzling spirit who appears to us all, yet is hard to describe for no one agrees on what they saw in that brilliant flash...Some say the creative life is in ideas, some say it is in doing. It seems in most instances to be a simple being. It is not virtuosity, although that is very fine in itself. It is the love of something, having so much love for something - whether a person, a word, an image, an idea, the land, or humanity --- that all that can be done with the overflow is to create. It is not a matter of wanting to, not a singular act of will; one solely must."

- Clarissa Pinkola Estes

detail from mixed media on paper from a few years ago

dharma

"Turning your mind toward the dharma does not bring security or confirmation.  Turning your mind toward the dharma does not bring any ground to stand on.  In fact, when your mind turns toward the dharma, you fearlessly acknowledge impermanence and change and begin to get the knack of hopelessness.

In Tibetan there's an interesting word: ye tang che. The ye part means "totally, completely," and the rest of it means "exhausted." Altogether, ye tang che means totally tired out.  We might say "totally fed up." It describes an experience of complete hopelessness, of completely giving up hope. This is an important point. This is the beginning of the beginning. Without giving up hope -- that there's somewhere better to be, that there's someone better to be -- we will never relax with where we are now or who we are.

To think that we can finally get it all together is unrealistic. To seek for some lasting security is futile. To undo our very ancient and very stuck habitual patterns of mind requires that we begin to turn around some of our most basic assumptions. Believing in a solid, separate self, continuing to seek pleasure and avoid pain, thinking that someone "out there" is to blame for our pain -- one has to get totally fed up with these ways of thinking. One has to give up hope that this way of thinking will bring us satisfaction. Suffering begins to dissolve when we can question the belief or the hope that there's anywhere to hide."

- Pema Chodron

detail from a watercolor

projections

"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves."

- Carl Jung (1875-1961)

working with mirrors, shadows and projections...

soy mujer y soy madre

I commit to protecting my children's sacred innocence. 

Why expose young ones to vulgarity and violence?

"The essential self is innocent, and when it tastes its own innocence knows that it lives forever."

- John Updike

soul

"Remember this: the soul creates, the mind reacts. The soul understands what the mind cannot conceive."

- Neale Donald Walsch

snapshot: a corner of my world 

YES

"It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.

I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.

I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool

for love

for your dream

for the adventure of being alive.


It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...

I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow

if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain

mine or your own

without moving to hide it

or fade it

or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy

mine or your own

if you can dance with wildness

and let the ecstasy fill you

to the tips of your fingers and toes

without cautioning us

to be careful

to be realistic

to remember the limitations

of being human.


It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true.

I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself.

If you can bear the accusation of betrayal

and not betray your own soul.

If you can be faithless

and therefore trustworthy.


I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day.

And if you can source your own life 
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with 

failure

yours and mine

and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,

“YES!"


It doesn’t interest me

to know where you live

or how much money you have.

I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.

I want to know if you will stand

in the centre of the fire

with me

and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.

I want to know what sustains you
from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone 
with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments."

© Oriah Mountain Dreamer from the book "The Invitation"

a reminder to be true to myself, to my dreams, to my art...

150 años de Rubén Darío

¿Eva era rubia? No. Con negros ojos

vio la manzana del jardín: con labios

rojos probó su miel; con labios rojos

que saben hoy más ciencia que los sabios.

Venus tuvo el azur en sus pupilas,

pero su hijo no. Negros y fieros,

encienden a las tórtolas tranquilas

los dos ojos de Eros.

Los ojos de las reinas fabulosas,

de las reinas magníficas y fuertes,

tenían las pupilas tenebrosas

que daban los amores y las muertes.

Pentesilea, reina de amazonas;

Judith, espada y fuerza de Betulia;

Cleopatra, encantadora de coronas,

la luz tuvieron de tus ojos, Julia.

La negra, que es más luz que la luz blanca

del sol, y las azules de los cielos.

Luz que el más rojo resplandor arranca

al diamante terrible de los celos.

Luz negra, luz divina, luz que alegra

la luz meridional, luz de las niñas,

de las grandes ojeras, ¡oh luz negra

que hace cantar a Pan bajo las viñas!

- Rubén Darío (1867-1916)

balance pleasure against pain

"...and lately I've begun wondering 

if you're trying to tell me something 

we used to talk all night

and do things alone together 

and I've begun

(as a reaction to a feeling)

to balance

the pleasure of loneliness

against the pain

of loving you "

- Nikki Giovanni